May 2008 Archives

A nearly defunct bill to ban mylar balloons in California was resurrected at the 11th hour Thursday, passing the full Senate 22-17. The bill, sponsored by Pasadena Democratic state Sen. Jack Scott, would impose $100 fines for those caught selling or distributing the shiny, helium-filled balloons starting in 2010.

Scott had until tomorrow to get the bill passed out of the chamber this session, according to spokeswoman Wendy Gordon. He had lobbied hard since it fell five votes shy of passage in early May, collecting endorsements from major power utilities including PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, as well as public safety and hospital groups including L.A. County Sheriff's, the California Professional Firefighters, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center and the California Hospital Association.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers also joined Scott in supporting the bill, as did Glendale and Burbank Water & Power, which first brought the bill to the senator. Pasadena Water & Power has stayed out of the fight, telling Gordon that mylar outages do not affect the city as much because most of its power lines are underground.

Arrayed against Scott's bill was the Balloon Council, a lobby made up of balloon distributors, retailers and manufacturers. The council even went as far as to create a Web site, www. savetheballoons.com, to argue its point that the bill would hurt their business and place too much responsibility on retailers and not enough on the customers who purchase -- and subsequently release -- the balloons.

But those concerns apparently weren't enough to sway most senators, who heeded the complaints of the utilities and hospitals lobbying for the bill.

From Gordon's release about the bill's passage:

According to PG&E, metal balloons caused some 211 outages last year in their territory covering central and Northern California. Southern California Edison reported nearly 400 outages from balloons and kites in 2005. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates these outages cost businesses between $220,000 and $357,000 per minute, which could mean a loss of $120 million annually......

(snip)

California law requiring weights and warning labels has not been effective, neither have warning advisories sent out by utility companies. Burbank, which is at the center of the entertainment and digital production industries, had eight major outages attributed to balloons last year; Los Angeles had five outages.

Local Democrats who voted for the balloon ban were Gil Cedillo of Los Angeles and Ron Calderon of Montebello. The only Republican to support the bill was Sen. Abe Maldonado, R-Monterey.

The bill will be considered in committee in the Assembly next month, with a full vote not expected until later this summer.

Ace photog Walt Mancini wasn't too happy that he and other "campaign paparazzi" were kept at arms length, but they did what they could to produce more propaganda for a presidential campaign.

This time there wasn't even a candidate involved...just a surrogate...but what a charismatic surrogate!

This from Janette Williams' story of the day:

PASADENA -- For the second time in a year, Michelle Obama made a flying visit to town Wednesday for a campaign fund-raiser -- this time without her husband, front-running Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

"She's always been a surrogate for him, this is a typical process," said Lena Kennedy, an organizer of the lunch-time event that attracted a who's who of local Democrats.

With tickets at $500 apiece -- and a list of 27 hosts each expected to bring in $10,000 -- Kennedy said organizers hoped to raise about $200,000 for the "Obama for America" campaign.

"This is a low-ticket-price event," said Kennedy, who worked for former state Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-La Canada Flintridge, one of the hosts for the event. "The price is very different from the last time."

Anybody who thinks the Metro Gold Line is a failed endeavor needs only to drive into the parking structure at the Sierra Madre Villa station on any weekday morning.

I use the Gold Line every chance I get, which, unfortunately is not that often since I live in Glendora. Whenever I have to drive into downtown to cover a trial or a county supervisors' meeting, I hop on the train. The opportunity to relax, catch up on my news and even start writing my story on my laptop before I get back to the office -- and all that while avoiding the traffic and parking hassles that downtown L.A. has to offer -- is too good to pass up.

Up until about a month or two ago, as long as I got there before 9 a.m. I could still find plenty of parking spaces -- albeit on the top level -- of the 1,000-space lot at the end-of-the-line Sierra Madre Villa station. But on Tuesday, when I got to the station at about 8:45 a.m. I got one of the last spots. I saw several drivers turn back around, forced to find parking on surrounding city streets.

"The parking lot is too small," complained Jun Kim, a long-time Gold Line rider who has taken the train to his Wilshire Boulevard office in downtown Los Angeles four times a week since the Gold Line opened in 2003. "They should have planned for this."

Indeed, the observations of long-time Gold Line riders have been borne out by statistics compiled by Metro. The Gold Line hit a record 22,231 average weekday boardings in March, up about 3,496 riders, or nearly 19 percent, from the 18,735 weekly boardings recorded a year earlier in March 2007.

That's the biggest jump, percentage-wise, experienced by any other line in the Metro Rail system over the past year.

The Gold Line's numbers dropped slightly in April to 22,159, according to Metro spokesman Rick Jaeger. But that small dip was mirrored on all the other lines and is still well above the previous Gold Line record of 20,972 weekly boardings set in September 2006.

Officials had been predicting 20,000 weekly boardings for the Gold Line since before its inception in 2003. And critics might scoff at the fact that the Gold Line's record 22,000 riders are dwarfed by the more than 144,000 that ride the Red Line, or 78,000 that travel on the Blue Line on a weekly basis.

But that would be comparing apples to oranges considering the longer distances -- and denser population centers -- traversed by those two lines. And the fact that it took a few years for the Gold Line to beat and exceed that magic 20,000 number should not be seen as a failure, but as proof that the line still has more growth potential than any other Metro Rail line and that an extension east to Montclair can only increase those numbers further.

In fact, the Gold Line is not far behind the 38,909 weekly boardings recorded by the next-busiest line, the Green Line, which at seven miles longer than the Gold Line makes for a much more logical -- though still skewed -- comparison.

The Green Line runs through the more densely populated area between Norwalk and Redondo Beach. Nearly 564,000 people live in the communities along the Green Line, compared to the roughly 262,000 folks living along the Gold Line, including Chinatown and historic Los Angeles according to 2000 Census figures (Add all of downtown L.A. and the number of people living in the Gold Line corridor goes up to just over 300,000).

In addition to its larger service population, the Green Line also goes through many more low-income communities than the Gold Line, making its target ridership much more likely to use public transit.

Taking those factors into account, the Gold Line's 22,000 weekly boardings don't look too shabby at all.

In reviewing city documents while preparing my story on an across-the-board 3 percent tax and fee hike approved by the council Monday, I came across some peculiar categories in Pasadena's fee schedule. While I doubt its been a while since a side show or menagerie came to town, purveyors of such peculiar forms of entertainment should be prepared to loosen their purse strings next time they decide to pitch their tents here in the Crown City:

Circus or menagerie tax, per day: $765.07 (up from $742.06)
Side show tax, per day: $68.33 (up from $66.27)
Boxing and wrestling tax, three month license: $688.53 (up from $667.83)
Billiard and pool room tax, per application: $131.47 (up from $127.51)
Bingo games: $125.12 (up $121.36)
Escort bureau applications: $717.24 (up from $695.68)

Pasadena spokeswoman Ann Erdman dismissed as rumor a recent post on the Foothill Cities blog that suggests the city has already settled on a new city manager.

The post, which was apparently triggered by a Foothill Cities reader quoting a "fairly reliable source," stated that a permanent replacement for recently retired City Manager Cynthia Kurtz had been selected last Wednesday, and that the winning candidate was a woman and former Glendale city manager.

"The City Council doesn't even meet on Wednesdays," said an incredulous Erdman upon being told about the blog post. "The application process hasn't even concluded yet."

Erdman said the city will continue accepting applications for the post, currently being filled by Interim City Manager Bernard Melekian, for about a week until this Friday. This posting by Bob Murray & Associates, which the city hired to conduct the city manager search, lists the deadline for applications as April 30.

Just out of curiosity I started plumbing my old Glendale contacts to find out if they've had any recent female city managers. It doesn't sound like they've ever had one.

Glendale spokesman Ritch Wells said that before current City Manager Jim Starbird -- who formerly headed West Covina City Hall -- the Jewel City was headed by Dave Ramsey, who served as city manager for about seven years. Ramsey was preceded by Jim Rez, another long-serving city manager.

"To my knowledge Glendale hasn't had a female city manager," said Wells.

He added that if Pasadena's application process is still ongoing, city ordinances would preclude the council from settling on a candidate at this point.

Due to print deadlines, I wasn't able to include too many of the public comments -- or council deliberations -- on the city's proposed anti-smoking ordinance in Tuesday's story.

While outnumbered by the anti-smokers, there was a significant number of mostly business owners railing against the proposed ordinance. JJ's Steakhouse proprietor Ralph Viscuso said he calculated that the new rule changes would cost his business about $600,000 in lost patronage from smokers, based on an informal survey he conducted.

One of his customers, Keith Park, said he would be one of those lost customers.

"I went to an Ivy League school, and after all the information I have been given I have decided to smoke cigars," said Park, a La Canada Flintridge resident, who took a pretty cheap shot at some of the proponents of the new smoking rules by saying that instead of worrying about second-hand smoke they should be more concerned about obesity-related illness. "JJ's Steakhouse will lose my business because of this. I go to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel patio to enjoy cigars, and now that place is going to lose my business too."

One woman said the ordinance would be the beginning of a slippery slope that would lead to the erosion of civil liberties.

"I don't want the government to protect me from every perceived hazard," she said. "Please protect our personal freedoms."

Don Engle said that the city has a chance to choose between a feel-good law and doing what is right.

"Smoking is not illegal," said Engle, who made the seemingly ludicrous suggestion that the stress-relieving benefits from smoking are being ignored, while the proven medical detriments of tobacco are being played up. "If you want to do something good, then close the fast-food restaurants."

But the scores of comments from students, community activists and health organization representatives in favor of the new rules seemed to sway the council.

Councilman Chris Holden flirted briefly with making the portion of the ordinance prohibiting smoking in outdoor dining areas part of a voluntary program. But Councilman Victor Gordo disagreed.

"I don't think this is an issue that lends itself to voluntary compliance measures," Gordo said.  "Those who wish to provide a place to smoke (for patrons) have the burden to show they can do so in a manner that isn't going to invade into the space of others... There has been a lot of talk about individual rights tonight, but there is a second part to individual rights, and that is that they end when they begin to infringe upon the rights of others. When somebody is smoking and the smoke travels into somebody else's face.... I believe the smoker's rights end then and there."

Councilwoman Margaret McAustin noted that because the enforcement of the new law would be based on complaints to a city phone number, enforcement would be "virtually voluntary" anyways.

The city's tobacco control coordinator, Statice Wilmore, said that the city would take several months after enactment of the law to conduct a public education campaign about the new rules through letters, signage and other measures before actively enforcing the law.

Wilmore said that during the public education campaign, "If a complaint is observed, the public can call the number. Once received it is investigated within one business day, and if a violation is determined to have taken place, (the business) will receive a letter from our office. What we really want to do is not go out punitively, we want to let the public and businesses know about the new law."

But she admitted that once enforcement is in full effect, a police officer or other city official with enforcement powers will be able to issue citations "on the spot" if they see a violation taking place.

In the end the council voted unanimously to proceed with the new regulations -- with the exception of Steve Madison, who was absent from the meeting, **and Holden, who abstained**. They also asked for staffers to come back within one year with an analysis of the new law and its impacts on businesses and the community, as well as suggestions to further extend the ordinance in order to receive an A-rating from the American Lung Association.

Among the suggestions on how to achieve that rating, made by various council members including Jacque Robinson and Sid Tyler: outlawing smoking on sidewalks in high-traffic areas of the city; at Brookside Golf Course, the last public open space in the city where smoking is still allowed; and even to require owners multi-family apartments and condominium buildings to reserve a certain percentage of units for non-smokers.

**Updated